"Environmentalsm has shaped up as a key social theme under Benedict XVI. Aside from numerous public comments, the pope has also approved plans to install solar panels atop the Paul VI Audience Hall, in addition to signing an agreement to reforest a stretch of central Hungary sufficient to offset the Vatican’s annual carbon output.

Among other things, Benedict XVI sees the environmental movement as a promising route for the recovery of a strong sense of "natural law," meaning the idea that moral limits to human conduct are inherent in nature. If people are willing to accept that idea about the environment, Benedict seems to hope, perhaps they will be more open to the claims of natural law in other areas of life as well."